Judith Lindbergh’s debut novel, The Thrall’s Tale, about women in Viking Age Greenland, was a Booksense (IndieBound) Pick, a Borders Original Voices Selection and praised by Pulitzer Prize winners Geraldine Brooks and Robert Olen Butler. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including Archaeology Magazine, Scandinavian Review, The World & I, the literary journal Other Voices, and most recently in UP HERE: The North at the Center of the World published by University of Washington Press. She also contributed to the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibition Vikings: The Norse Atlantic Saga and was an expert commentator on the History Channel’s documentary series MANKIND: The Story of All of Us.

Since 2006, Judith has mentored adult writers through the Writers Support Circle at the South Orange-Maplewood Adult School. In January 2010, she created The Writers Circle, extending her workshops to children and expanding her offerings for adults. She traces her teaching approach to her background as a professional dancer and actress, and from the lessons learned from one of her greatest writing mentors, Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time. Judith believes in the uniqueness of each writer’s voice. All writers have something valid to say. Judith’s classes aim to coax that pure, honest expression from each of her students. Learn more at www.judithlindbergh.com.

Michelle taught business and marketing writing at the College of Saint Elizabeth, creative writing at the Poetry & Prose Winter Getaway in Cape May and Seaview, and gave seminars and workshops for Murphy Writing Seminars, the Morris Museum, Drew University’s Shakespeare in Performance Colloquium II, Brandeis University, and at various local libraries and poetry festivals.

Laurie Lico Albanese has published in almost every genre, including fiction, poetry, journalism, creative nonfiction and memoir. Her books include Stolen Beauty,Blue Suburbia: Almost a Memoir, Lynelle by the Sea, and The Miracles of Prato, co-written with art historian Laura Morowitz. Her travel and general-interest pieces appear in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Mothering magazine, and elsewhere.

Laurie has an MFA from Stonecoast/The University of Southern Maine. She has taught creative and formal writing to all ages, from Montclair elementary schools to her adult workshops at Studio 129 in Montclair, as well as Montclair Kimberley Academy Upper School and Wagner College on Staten Island.

Mike Allegra is the author of the picture books Sarah Gives Thanks (Albert Whitman & Company, 2012), Everybody’s Favorite Book (Macmillan, 2018), and Scampers Thinks Like a Scientist (Dawn, 2019). He also not-so secretly pens the Prince Not-So Charming chapter book series (Macmillan, 2018-19, pen name: Roy L. Hinuss). He received an Independent Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, won the 2014 Highlights Fiction Contest, and received a 2019 Creative Access Fellowship. In January 2019, he giddily signed a deal to write a new chapter book series, Kimmie Tuttle: Humble Genius (ABDO, 2021).

Mike lives in Scotch Plains with his wife, Ellen; son, Alex; and a pair of gerbils, Scampers and Smudge. He also juggles, watches silent films, and plays the banjo—yet still can’t understand why he isn’t invited to more parties.

Joe Amditis is the associate director of the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University. He graduated from Rutgers University in 2013 and earned his B.A. with a double-major in political science and criminal justice before going on to earn his M.A. from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in New York City. He is the cofounder and former director of operations of Muckgers, and investigative publication for the Rutgers-New Brunswick community.

Joe is also a seven-year veteran of the New Jersey Army National Guard. He was deployed to Iraq from 2008-2009. He also has experience as an international relations researcher, graphic designer, 360 video producer, audio and video editor, and podcaster. Over the last several years, Joe has coordinated three statewide collaborative reporting projects in New Jersey: Dirty Little Secrets: New Jersey’s Toxic Legacy; In the Shadow of Liberty: Immigration in NJ; and Voting Block

Steph Auterihas written about women’s health and sexuality for the Atlantic, Pacific Standard, the Washington Post, VICE, and other publications. She is also regular contributor to Book Riot, and an editor for Simplemost. Steph’s reported memoir, A Dirty Word, is out from Cleis Press in October 2018.

Steph lives in Verona, with her husband, her daughter, and three cats.

Pam Bachorz is a young adult author who has also worked in educational publishing for nearly twenty years. Her first novel, Candor, was a Junior Library Guild selection, Indie NEXT selection and YALSA Popular Paperback. Her second novel, Drought, was also an Indie NEXT selection, as well as a YALSA Teens Top Ten Nominee.

Pam frequently draws inspiration from the interesting places where her family has lived, including: upstate New York; Boston; Celebration, Florida; the Washington DC metro area; Austin, Texas; and now, northern New Jersey. Among her degrees are a BS in Print Journalism from Boston University and a Masters of Library Science from Simmons College. Pam enjoys hiking, travel adventures both big and small, and cheering on her teenage son’s baseball team.

Donna Baier Stein is the author of The Silver Baron’s Wife (PEN/New England Discovery Award, Bronze winner in Foreword reviews 2017 Book of the Year Award, Will Rogers Medallion Award and Paterson Prize for Fiction, more), Sympathetic People (Iowa Fiction Award Finalist and 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist), Sometimes You Sense the Difference (chapbook), and Letting Rain Have Its Say (poetry book), and the forthcoming Scenes from the Heartland: Stories Based on Lithographs by Thomas Hart Benton. She was a Founding Editor of Bellevue Literary Review and founded and publishes Tiferet Journal.She has received a Bread Loaf Scholarship, Johns Hopkins University MFA Fellowship, grants from the New Jersey Council on the Arts and Poetry Society of Virginia, a Scholarship from the Summer Literary Seminars, and more.

Donna’s writing has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Saturday Evening Post, Writer’s Digest, Confrontation, Prairie Schooner, New York Quarterly, Washingtonian, New Ohio Review, and many other journals as well as in the anthologies I’ve Always Meant to Tell You (Pocket Books) and To Fathers: What I’ve Never Said (featured in O Magazine).

Donna was also an award-winning copywriter for Smithsonian, Time, World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and many other clients in the direct marketing industry.

After working in educational publishing for a decade, both as a writer and editor, he changed course to his current profession as a high school history teacher.

Scott holds a Journalism degree from St. Michael’s College and a Political Science degree from Kean University. He lives in Summit with his wife and two children. Within his family, Scott is known as a weaver of tales, and is at work on a series of fictional children’s books.

Jeff Campbellis the author of two nonfiction books for young adults, the IPPY-award-winning Daisy to the Rescue (Zest, 2014) and Last of the Giants (Zest, 2016), a 2016 Junior Library Guild selection. For twelve years, he was a travel writer for Lonely Planet (covering US destinations like Hawaii, California, Florida, and New Jersey), and for over twenty-five years he has been a freelance book editor (of nonfiction and YA fiction) and a writing coach, helping authors develop their manuscripts for publication. He is also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

Since 2010, Jeff has taught an after-school creative writing program for grade-school students in Morristown, where he lives, and he has been teaching with The Writers Circle since 2014. .

Libby Cudmore’s debut novel, The Big Rewind, received a starred review from Kirkus and praise from Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly and USA Today. Her short fiction, poetry and essays have been published in PANK, The Stoneslide Corrective, the Barrelhouse blog, The Big Click, Big Lucks, The Writer and Writer’s Digest, and the anthologies Welcome Home, Mixed Up and the Locus-nominated Hanzai Japan, where her story, “Rough Night in Little Toke” was singled out as a “polished gem” by the Japan Times.

She is the managing editor for the Freeman’s Journal/Hometown Oneonta, newspapers, as well as a regular columnist for SleuthSayers. As a music journalist, a frequent contributor to Vinyl Me Please, Albumism and Paste, and hosts the weekly #RecordSaturday live-tweet on her Twitter, @libbycudmore.

She is a mentor in the low-residency MFA program at Western Connecticut State University and has taught writing for Education Unlimited, as well as at the Pen in Hand Young Writers Conference and the Young Writers Conference at Colgate University.

Chip Davis has worked in both theatre and television for the past thirty years. An alumnus of The Juilliard School’s Drama division, he has acted, written and directed in numerous mediums Off-Broadway, online, and a few other off-and-on places. His last work, Resonant Pitch, can be viewed online at www.moseshaygood.com.

Vinessa DiSousa

Vinessa DiSousaSpecialties:Revision

Vinessa DiSousa is a freelance writer and book editor. In the past twenty years, she has worked as a ghostwriter/editor, and written and edited for numerous general interest magazines and for NBC and USA networks. Her fiction has been published in PANK magazine, and has won honorable mentions for the GlimmerTrain “Family Matters” short story contest and from the Pen Parentis Writing Fellowship for New Parents. She has an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College.

Vinessa is a devoted “rewriter” and loves working with other writers to fine-tune their completed drafts. She is currently at work on a novel.

Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Catherine Doty is the author of Momentum, a volume of poems, and Just Kidding, a collection of cartoons. She is widely published in journals and anthologies, and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and The New York Foundation for the Arts.

Christina Kapp

Christina KappSpecialties: Fiction, Poetry, Where Do I Begin? and Once You’ve Begun

Christina Kapp has spent most of her life writing and nurturing an obsession with books. After beginning her career in book publishing at William Morrow, she left to pursue a MA in writing at Johns Hopkins University and become an academic administrator for Johns Hopkins and Columbia Universities.

Christina has published her short fiction, poetry, and essays in numerous publications including Poetry Quarterly, Tanka Journal, Storyscape Journal, Monongahela Review, Barn Owl Review, Anderbo.com, Forge, PANK and many others. As well as her MA in writing, she also has a MA in English literature from Rutgers University. She currently teaches at Rutgers—Newark and works as a freelance writer, editor, and tutor.

Sarah Lyman Kravits brings over 20 years of experience writing about and coaching high school and college students on their careers. She is the co-author of The Career Tool Kit and the Keys to Success series which is published by Pearson Education and used at colleges around the nation. As an expert in student success, critical thinking, and study skills, Sarah teaches the New Student Seminar at Montclair State University, and gives workshops on student success topics to both students and faculty at a variety of schools and conferences. For over 20 years, Sarah has also read applications and interviewed candidates as a member of the advisory committee for the Jefferson Scholarship at the University of Virginia.

A writer, teacher, and student of the world, Jonah Kruvant received his Bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College, his Master’s degree in Teaching from Fordham University, and his MFA degree from Goddard College.

After living abroad in four different countries, Jonah settled in the New York area, where he wrote The Last Book Ever Written, published by PanAm Books in April, 2015. His work has appeared in Digital Americana, Bewildering Stories, Fiction on the Web, On the Verge, the Scarlet Leaf Review, and LIMN Literary and Arts Journal. www.jonahkruvant.com

Benilde Little is the bestselling author of the novels Good Hair, The Itch, Acting Out and Who Does She Think She Is? all published by Simon and Schuster. Atria Books published her memoir, Welcome to My Breakdown. The Los Angeles Times named Good Hair one of the best books of the year; Natalie Cole bought the film rights and Regency Films signed on to produce it.

Benilde’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Essence Magazine and numerous anthologies, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Essence, Jet, People Magazine, Heart and Soul, More magazine, among many others. She has had numerous media appearances including NPR, the Today Show, and Tavis Smiley.

She received a B.A. from Howard University and attended graduated school at Northwestern and studied writing with Abigail Thomas. Benilde has taught creative writing at Ramapo College. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband and teenage son. Their daughter is away at college.

Heather Newman

Heather Newman
Specialties: Poetry

Heather Newman will receive her MFA in Creative Writing/ Poetry from The New School (NYC) in May. Her work has appeared in The Inquisitive Eater, Matter, The New Verse News, Two Hawks Quarterly, The Potomac, Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop University of Dayton, Aji Magazine, and Paulinskill Poetry Project’s anthology, Voices From Here, Vol. II. She is a member of the South Mountain Poets.

Heather has lived in Short Hills for twenty-four years and, before raising two children, had a career in advertising and television production. Heather believes in the creative power of poetry workshops, as well as the C.S. Lewis quote: “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”.

Priscilla Orr, author of Jugglers & Tides and Losing the Horizon from Hannacroix Creek Books, has published in Southern Poetry Review, Tiferet, and other journals. She’s received awards and fellowships from Yaddo, NJ State Arts Council. A Dodge poet, Priscilla is founding Director of the Silconas Poetry Center and The Stillwater Review.

Graphic novelist Kevin C. Pyle has been teaching graphic novel/comics workshops since 2007. He has taught in a wide variety of educational environments, including the Montclair Cooperative School, Montclair State University, and Princeton University. He is the author/illustrator of the graphic novels Blindspot, Katman, Take What You Can Carry, and Bad For You, all published by Henry Holt for Young Readers. Blindspot was included in the Best American Comics for 2008. He has done illustrations for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous other publications, and has done social justice comics about incarceration, worker’s rights, and immigrants’ rights..

Lisa Romeo is the author of Starting with Goodbye: A Daughter’s Memoir of Love After Loss (forthcoming from University of Nevada Press, May 2018), as well as many short works of narrative nonfiction, personal essay, and journalism. Her essay, “Not Quite Meet-Cute” is listed among Notables in Best American Essays 2016, and other work has been nominated for BAE and Pushcart Prizes.

Lisa is part of the core faulty of the Bay Path University online MFA program, and has taught creative writing at Montclair State, Rutgers, and privately. Her daily work includes freelance writing, editing book-length manuscripts, and private writing coaching. Lisa frequently presents and speaks at conferences and workshops, and is an editor with Compose Journal and Cleaver Magazine.\

Lisa holds a B.S. in journalism (Syracuse) and an MFA in creative writing (Stonecoast), and has received grants and scholarships from the Vermont Studio Center and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. She lives in Cedar Grove with her husband and sons.

Marissa Rothkopf Bates

Marissa Rothkopf Bates
Specialty: Food Writing

Marissa Rothkopf Bates writes about food for The New York Times, Food52, Newsweek and New Jersey Monthly, among others. Marissa has worked at SPY magazine, Nickelodeon, CondéNast and Oxygen TV. Marissa has a graduate degree in history and earned her professional qualification as a chef from the Institute of Culinary Education, yet still gets nervous when asked to make custard. In her spare time she enjoys writing about herself in the third person. For tips on the best pizza in NJ, follow her: Twitter@MarissaRothkopf and Insta @MarissaRothkopfEats.

Lesley Scammell received a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts for her first play, Make Me an Angel and spent the next three years writing for Garter Lane Arts Center in Ireland; Bluebarn Theatre in Omaha, and Circle Rep in Seattle, before completing an MFA in playwriting at The Actors Studio Drama School at The New School.

Lesley’s plays have been seen at Luna Stage, The Shooting Gallery, MCC Theatre and New Dramatists in New York, Show of Strength Theatre in Bristol, England, Blue Barn Theatre in Omaha and Circle Rep in Seattle. Her screenplay for the short film, The German Lullaby, received Best Short film awards in the 2008 International Film Festival, England and the 2008 Reelheart International Film Festival, Toronto; among other accolades.

She was Assistant Director of Arts in Education at MCC Theatre, NY, taught creative writing in Hong Kong, playwriting at the International Schools Theatre Association in Beijing, and creative writing for 5th-8th grade students at the Montclair Cooperative School in Montclair. She has also worked in Arts in Education in New York City and as a writing mentor for the PEN Prison Writing Program. Lesley is a script reader for Luna Stage in West Orange and the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha.

Eric Scott Shandroff (Myster E) is a New Jersey native, Emcee/Spoken Word Artist, Edutainer, writer, and reciter. Through lyrical lessons he’s made a name for himself with his performance-poetry around the state and the world. Some call him a poet, others call him a rapper, but as long as you feel his words, then that’s really all he’s after.

The Myster has opened up for hip hop icons such as KRS One, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Joel Ortiz, Papoose and many more. He was featured as a special guest performer at the Newark Museum and performed at SXSW in Austin, TX 2016. He is currently a Teaching Artist for NJPAC Arts Education doing residencies in schools teaching through poetry and hip hop, and is the Director/Coordinator for the Hip Hop Institute at the Monmouth County Boys & Girls Club in partnership with Lakehouse Studios.

Myster E writes from a free-verse background with a focus on concept-themed writing and rhyming. E says, “Poetry is a part of me, my pen hits the pad with the power of an arrow during archery, it ain’t hard to see, writing pours through my blood, veins and arteries.”

Jennifer Walkup is a young adult author whose first novel, Second Verse, won of the gold Moonbeam Children’s Book Award and the Golden Leaf Award.

Jennifer can most often be found writing, reading, and spending time with her husband and young sons. A member of SCBWI and RWA, Jennifer also works as an editor and creative writing instructor, and is an advocate for Epilepsy awareness. This Ordinary Life is her second novel.

Paul Witcover teaches the Summer Creative Writing Intensives. He is the author of five novels, most recently The Emperor of All Things and the forthcoming Eternity in Love. He has been a finalist for the World Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, James Tiptree, and Nebula awards — someday he hopes to actually win one!

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What Students Are Saying

Jaden continues to flourish and strengthen as a writer under Judith’s inspirational guidance. as her parent I appreciate all you do to inspire her. – Laura B., West Orange, NJ

Michelle knows and understands my story so well. She gets what I’m trying to write! Her feedback is always so valuable and helpful. – Continuing Your Novel student

Laurie was insightful, inspirational, encouraging and her comments were on target. Now, I feel like I know how to write a scene, organize my novel into a storyboard, deal with plots and subplots, characters and conflict. – Judy S., Springfield, NJ

Where Do I Begin was a great class, and I found myself with the spirit to write again. Thank you for that inspiration and needed push to get it going, and most important, for allowing me to actually know that I could write. – Christine K.

Scott encourages and inspires my son to not only become a much better writer but to enjoy writing more than he ever has. He is a natural teacher and is able to consistently reach and motivate the kids in warm and friendly way. – Kelley S.

Jeff’s questions and comments are incisive and helpful. I’ve rarely had anyone respond to my work so thoughtfully and thoroughly…. [Jeff is] a great facilitator and the course was challenging and inspiring. – Linda T.

Chris has been a perfect mind motivator and confidence builder in my short writing life. – Maria S.

A happenstance enrollment in The Writers’ Circle ‘Memoir Writing’ class with author Benilde Little turned into the spark plug and ignition I needed for writing AND for unlocking memories, perspectives, events and storylines. – Maureen E., Montclair

Lisa, you are an amazing teacher and I would have loved to take your classes as a college student! – Marisa C.

Jenn helped me get past my internal editor and critic, which freed me to create and put my thoughts on paper – something I had not been able to do for literally decades. – Steven S., Montclair